Product description

The city is widely regarded as the most characteristic expression of the social, cultural and economic formations of the Roman Empire. This was especially true in the Latin-speaking West, where urbanism was much less deeply ingrained than in the Greek-speaking East but where networks of cities grew up during the centuries following conquest and occupation. This up-to-date and well-illustrated synthesis provides students and specialists with an overview of the development of the city in Italy, Gaul, Britain, Germany, Spain and North Africa, whether their interests lie in ancient history, Roman archaeology or the wider history of urbanism. It accounts not only for the city's geographical and temporal spread and its associated monuments (such as amphitheatres and baths), but also for its importance to the rulers of the Empire as well as the provincials and locals.

Author information

Ray Laurence is Reader in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. He has published widely on the history of ancient Rome, including Roman Pompeii: Space and Society (2nd edition, 2007), Traveller's Guide to the Ancient World: Rome (2008) and Roman Passions: A History of Pleasure in Imperial Rome (2009). Simon Esmonde-Cleary is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Birmingham. His previous books include The Ending of Roman Britain (1989) and Rome in the Pyrenees: Lugdunum and the Convenae from the First Century BC to the Seventh Century AD (2007). Gareth Sears is Lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Late Roman African Urbanism (2007).

Review quote

"Students of Rome's empire will learn much from this work. Paper, binding, typography, bibliography, and index are up to the publisher's high standards, and at a fairly modest price for the paperback." --Choice

Table of contents

Introduction; 1. The creation of an urban culture; 2. Colonisation and the development of Roman urbanism; 3. City foundation, government and urbanism; 4. The reception of Roman urbanism in the West; 5. Town planning, competition and the aesthetics of urbanism; 6. Defining a new town: walls, streets and temples; 7. Assembling the city: forum and basilica; 8. Assembling the city: baths and urban life; 9. Assembling the city: theatres and sacred space; 10. Assembling the city: amphitheatres; 11. The Roman city in ca.AD 250: an urban legacy of Empire?; Bibliography; Index.